So the countdown is over and we're now ready to show you what we've been working on! Before I reveal all the lovely details, I have a few words to say regarding the history and current status of The Daily Click. The DC has been around for a very long time - in fact apart from the odd new feature here and there it has largely remained the same for the last 9 years. It seems remarkable that the very first account was created way back on the 2nd of December in 2001.

Some would say that the site has aged well and it does indeed still serve it's purpose. But we've come to the point now were we feel it is time for the site to evolve and catch up to the rest of the web. Not only will this help to provide a better service to our current users, we feel it will also help attract brand new users - users who want to play games as well as develop them. It's also a great opportunity to start fresh. It gives us a chance to fix the problems that some would say have plagued the site for a while. But more importantly, we still want to keep that DC feel which has kept the majority of our users visiting for years.

Today we're announcing the next version of the DC. Clubsoft and myself have been working on this since September - along with the extremely helpful feedback from the rest of the admin team. There is still some work to be done, but we're very hopeful of releasing the new DC sometime this year.

One thing we're very serious about is getting your feedback. We plan to post regular news posts regarding the progress of the new DC, including screen-shots and new feature announcements. We hope you'll help us out in telling us what you think so that we can try and make this version the best it can possibly be. There may be disagreements along the way, but hopefully we can come to an agreement on what is best for the site and the community.

Okay, now for some important information. The new DC features a completely new re-design. We have a brand new logo which you can see above, and the design of the site fits in nicely with the rest of the web. Not only that, but we're now completely shifting over to PHP. We think this will probably make the site run a lot quicker and also make it less of a pain for us when developing new features!

Please note, these designs are not final and are likely to change according to your feedback!

We hope to tease you with more juicy details in the coming days - the next news post will cover the re-design and a brand new private messages system. I will also put a FAQs section in the next news post - so please post any questions or suggestions in the comments and I will try to answer the most important ones!

That sounds great Rikus and I really like the new layout! One question, will the size of one page be smaller than 2megabyte this time? Because surfing TDC on my smartphone really sucks right now because of traffic limit after a while

I like the overall design, but I'm not sure about the font. Maybe it's the screenshot, or the browser used in them or whatever, but the bolded fonts look bloated and the spacing between the fonts varies between 0-2 pixels. The text is kinda hard to read here and there.

I agree with Duncan, is the present database going to be floated across? Have you guys developed some kind of asp database (can not even think what it is called it has been that long since I used ASP) to mysql database converter?Comment edited by Oddball Hagar on 2/8/2011

I think the font used is Tahoma - may be an idea to give Arial or Verdana a try?

I agree that a little more colour could be used in places though. Would be nice to get some more of the yellow somewhere I think (though design isn't a strong point of mine, so who knows). Will certainly give it a thought!

How about in addition to project pages, members would have their own too, maybe a simple personal blog, similar to the devlogs. Sometimes it'd be easier to just follow and favorite a user whose production you fancy following, instead of all their projects individually. Then, whenever the favorited user updates their blog, or any of their game projects, the favoriter (is that a word?) would be informed of the update.

Perhaps it'd become more about people than games then, but I'd find it much easier to just be able to favorite someone and immediately get updates on all their production here on TDC, if I so want.

I definitely approve of this upcoming redesign. I'm especially excited about the new PM system.

If I were to make a suggestion, I would recommend taking steps the integrate the site into popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. That way, it'll be easier for our Facebook buddies to keep track of our projects, to Like stuff posted on the site, etc. It's merely a suggestion of course, and regardless, I think the new additions are a step in the right direction.

I'm also not too sure about that new Download page. I like the current Downloads table in the sense that you can see a large number of downloads at once. On the other hand, the new page is easier on the eyes... Perhaps as a compromise, you could have an "Archive" section of some sort that uses the old-style table.Comment edited by Strife on 2/8/2011

On a side note : I am starting to feel like a grumpy old man, why do people feel the need to check things on their phones? Surely its not too much to wait until you get to an available PC ? I see "facebook" phone zombies on the way home from work, slowly staggering along the road and sometimes just randomly stopping and I just think what the...?

In fact, I'm already beginning to throw together some concept designs for a few new skins. Once I have the necessary files and foundation, I'll start working on putting together a few wide variety skins to cover various tastes. One of which will be similar to the one I made for the current version of TDC.
That way when the new site is open, no one is stuck with a single theme.Keep an eye on the project page for more details.

I wont do this completely on my own taste though, please send me messages giving me ideas on themes or styles you'd like to see.

You'll all be able to make your own skins like before. I don't think we'll limit it to particular skin-making competitions like before, or in other words, the link to the template package will be more easily accessible than before. I don't know if such a package is ready yet though.

Really Adam? 8 comments and 7 of them are either negative and/or smart-ass jabs. Have you nothing better to do then to try to start a fight? Just take a step back and look at how childish you're acting right now. That's all I'm going to say.

I know some of your comments were constructive, but they were said in a sort of negative way. I'm not just talking about the announcement of the new TDC either, but in general. You do keep saying that I'm quite petty, or have petty elements, but thats not really the case. We can handle the criticism if its constructive, that's why we're wanting to make this everyones community site and take everyones comments on board.

And yeah, I do agree that its a shame the site couldn't be ready on time, but we under-estimated how much work we needed to do on it.

What else was underestimated was the amount of conflicts the coders would experience, in terms of Flava having internet troubles and Clubsoft having to travel to the United States, and such things as that.

You are petty. You even admitted in a pm that silencing me was because of your own personal issues and that you were wrong. Dogzer recieved warnings because you couldnt ignore his moaning about deleting his story, which to be fair, wasn't that bad in the end.

And to top it off, you're notorious for having the last say before you lock threads, or unlocking threads Rikus has locked to have your last say. Ive seen it done so many times. If that isn't petty, then god knows what is.

In the PM I apologised for silencing you, and that I went the wrong way about it. This was my (probably futile) attempt at melting the ice. There was no mention of my "personal issues" so don't embellish the truth.

Dogzer received only one warning from me, because yes, it was tiring to see him mention it all over TDC, and I did ask him to stop but he chose to ignore me. The other admins were tired of it too and felt a warning was appropriate.

I also lock threads because that is what I'm supposed to do when an admin feels a conflict is getting out of hand. I post a warning threatening to lock the thread first, and if issues continue then its locked. All admins do this.

I said 7 out of 8 of your comments were negative. That left ONE of your comments as being constructive, so don't try to make it seem like I wasn't giving you any credit.

With the way you're acting, Adam. I think you're just jealous that I have a small part in the new version of the site, albeit accidental. I never claimed to lead in any part of the site, I was kindly stating that I would be creating skins for the site and asked for ideas. You're the one who purposely took it the wrong way. You asked Flava? Really? I rest my case.

The very way you're acting about this is making you look very childish, not constructive. If your intent is to be constructive, here me out when I say that you're doing a horrible job. Theres some respectful, constructive feedback for you, Adam.

Honestly, I couldnt give a crap who has a part in the new site, Brandon. So long as Clubsoft and Flava are coding it, that's all that matters in the long run.

Your tone was suggestive that you were in charge of skins for TDC, asking people what they wanted, hence my request that other users could make skins too.

As for accusing me of acting childish, Im not going to deny that. I can be incredibly childish.

But I think you perhaps forgot about a couple of weeks ago when you went on a little spamming spree in two news posts with "lol" in the middle of a flame war. No doubt trying to provoke a reaction from somebody like you so often do.

TBH dudes I do not like the font very much. Not too sure why, but it just does not appeal to me. When I did my graphics module I found making my own fonts in Illustrator really quite ace...

On a side note I do think anyone that cussed Adam whilst he was silenced was being out of order, but anyway here is something appropiate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ErrZ-ipoE. Anyway I suggest everyone has a nice cup of tea and a biscuit , make mine a bourbon biscuit and a blue riband!

I find making my own fonts quite difficult... I have a very limited imagination

I guess we can look into the possibility of a new font but I suspect the colouring would stay the same at least. I'll let you know if we come up with anything, or if anything should change, but in the meantime feel free to show us your own ideas

I think the tdc stamp should be blueish instead of greyish like in my avatar And for a skin I still pretty much prefer the orange going to yellow for the title letter colors: The Daily Click.. then again I am a sucker for blue and yellow/orange as some of the oldbies of the site know

Also, one thing that always bugs me:
The date at the top right of a post is left aligned to a smaller div, or similar. Either right align it or make it say 'Today at 13:45' or something like that
Currently it looks like it's missing text